Hunter College Libraries Blog

I would like to encourage all of you who have an interest in demographic information in general and US Census in particular to take a look at one of our new databases. Social Explorer is a product of Queens College faculty member Andy Beveridge and is intended to make demographic data from 1790 to 2000 accessible to nearly anyone. The web site of the Census Bureau itself only offers data from 1990 and 2000. Up to this point, it has been very difficult to find easy electronic access to census data older than 1980. The very oldest census data in Social Explorer is available only to the county level, but tract level data is available from 1940 on.

Social Explorer is not just numbers. It makes it easy to create visually interesting and informative maps that display Census variables that you choose from the list. The maps can display an area as wide as the continental US or as detailed as street level. Click on a tool that looks like a magnifying glass with a + and on an area of the national map. Each click you make will bring you to a narrower and narrower piece of the geography. Change the variables, and change the colors of the map.

Researchers often ask about data on religious affiliation that follows census geography. But since the Census asks no questions on religious affiliation, this data has been hard to find. Social Explorer includes data from Association of Religious Data Archives and Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies and allows users to do reports with religion data down to the county level, and create maps as well.

Danise Hoover
Associate Librarian for Public Services
Hunter College Libraries